Although, having said that, I made two purchases at the comic show: a set of hero, heroine, and robot from Steam Detectives that was marked down, probably because they'd given up any help of ever selling it; and a Sakura in her pilot's suit from Sakura Wars that was discounted because it'd been a display. (I've always liked the looks of SW uniforms.)

There wasn't a lot of anime stuff there, but a lot of what there was had been marked down quite a bit.

I've got several but not nearly comparable to that great collection. I must admit that I've tasted the forbidden PVC fruit...and it's awesome! "Floodgate" is perhaps too conservative a term. The details of these things are amazing!

So I took a look at Tsunami3k's slide show of his PVC figs. I thgought the selection was good & I liked the quality of the photos. I could tell he went to a bit of trouble & even used off camera lighting. Lifted with permission from a PM:

he real story was literally me holding a can light with an aging CF (compact fluorescent) bulb in it in one hand and a Rubbermaid tub lid with a white trash bag draped over it in the other as a reflector. I put the camera on timer and set up the lighting through the viewfinder by contorting myself like a mangled bird. Then I'd hit the shutter and scramble to get the right lighting again.

That's one of the things I really like about table top photography... it just doesn't matter what you do or how you do it as long as it looks good. A little effort goes a long way.

Crikey, I didn't expect to get outed. Well, while some time has passed, I still feel rather foolish. I was saving Jubei-chan for last since she was my first figure and wanted to use any knowledge I might gain about lighting from the other figures on her. I turned away from my camera (on a tripod about 2 meters high) for a second to move a can light heard a crash behind me and I turned around to find it laying among a pile of anime DVDs. Both camera and lens pegged my 'N' shelf, breaking it and, scattered artboxes and DVD cases everywhere, including my Neon Genesis platium box. Argh!

I had just watched an episode of CSI so I was able to deduce from the scatter pattern that my camera had plunged forward and killed an anime shelf in the den with the pipe-wrench. I prefer to believe that the camera was so taken with Jubei that it leaned too far forward and fell but I suppose there's also the possibility that it had developed an unwholesome Eva-complex. There's also a very negligible chance that I simply forgot to tighten the camera down before walking away.

Anyway, my camera is fairly decent so this is a pretty unnerving thing to have happen. The body appeared to be intact but that's never a guarantee with such gear but having it fall lens-first made it especially worrisome since I didn't have a protective filter on it.

Clearly if the fall was hard enough to break a wooden shelf then the odds weren't in my favor but, at first glance, everything looked ok...until I noticed the front edge of the lens. Long story slightly shorter, the filter threads were completely smashed up..only slightly soul-crushing, but after a fall like that there's still no guarantee that something internal didn't break within the lens and/or the camera body.

The ultimate proof that everything was still relatively intact was my final image of Jubei-chan, shot through burning tears.

You may recall my tale of my copy of The Anime Encyclopedia (2nd edition) falling off a high shelf and pasting Belldandy and Skuld, narrowly missing Urd. Do you suppose fate is trying to tell us to get a more wholesome hobby, like alcoholism or counterfeiting?

Long story slightly shorter, the filter threads were completely smashed up..only slightly soul-crushing, but after a fall like that there's still no guarantee that something internal didn't break within the lens and/or the camera body.

Yes, but least the pictures turned out good. It would have even worse with damaged gear & nothing to show for it.

Matt said:

Do you suppose fate is trying to tell us to get a more wholesome hobby, like alcoholism or counterfeiting?

Yes, but you are sure to break many more things by drinking too much. Counterfeiting? Only if you get the plates to make the legendary Goat Bills!

Kokon Tozai wrote:Yes, but least the pictures turned out good. It would have even worse with damaged gear & nothing to show for it.

So I initially tried to console myself with until a brief flash of camera gear value vs. total figure value flashed through my head which quickly got me to torturing myself with guilt and fluctuating feelings of self-loathing. I'm feeling much better now....at least about that. I've found other things to get all angsty about.

Kokon Tozai wrote:Matt said:

Do you suppose fate is trying to tell us to get a more wholesome hobby, like alcoholism or counterfeiting?

Yes, but you are sure to break many more things by drinking too much. Counterfeiting? Only if you get the plates to make the legendary Goat Bills!

Hrmm.....did I fail to mention there was at least one bottle of Sapporo involved? Anyway, I'm knocking back another Sapporo as I type this while I wait for the Hello Kitty armband press to warm up.

One wonders if these will ever hit the states. I suppose they could be imported but few would want to pay $1200 for shipping. Ironic considering an airline seat (for a typical 1:1 human) is about half that.